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BFO90FA002 · Beech 58P

25 Oct 1989 · Nokesville, VA, United States

Beech 58P · Accident: airframe, component or system failure

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Event

NTSB case
BFO90FA002
Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
Completed
API-reported fatalities
1 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
0
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
General aviation
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Visual Meteorological Cond

Beech 58P

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 58
Category
Airplane
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
N86MC
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded
Aircraft age
Not recorded
Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
Part 91: General Aviation
Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
Other
First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
Airframe, component or system failure
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Destroyed

Cause areas

  • Flt control syst, elevator trim/tab control › Improper
  • Flt control syst, elevator trim/tab control › Jammed
  • Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Nokesville, VA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

AFTER TAKING OFF AT NGT ON RWY 34L, THE ACFT WAS MNVRD TO A LEFT DNWND (SAME RWY). ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, THE ENG(S) WENT TO A HI PWR SETTING ON DNWND, BUT THE ACFT SPEED RMND SLOW. APCHG (ABEAM) MIDFIELD, THE ACFT TURNED LEFT, THEN WENTINTO A DSCNT & CRASHED WEST OF THE ARPT. IMPACT WAS ON AN ESE HDG, IN A 15 TO 17 DEG DSCNT. THE LEFT FUEL SLCTR WAS FND IN THE 'OFF' PSN, BUT THE ACTUATING CABLE HAD PULLED THRU THE HOUSING (PRESUMABLY DRG IMPACT). THE RGT FUEL SLCTR WAS ON. BOTH PROPS SEPD FM THE CRANKSHAFT WITH EVIDENCE OF TORSIONAL FAILURE. THERE WAS A HISTORY OF ELEVATOR TRIM (E/T) PROBLEMS. JUST BFR THIS FLT, MAINT HAD BEEN PERFORMED ON THE E/T. E/T ACTUATORS WERE FND REVERSED, WHICH REVERSED THE DRCTN OF TRIM. BOTH E/T TABS WERE FND BYD THE FULL NOSE DWN TRIM PSN. CALCULATED FORCE TO OVERRIDE AT THE FULL NOSE DWN PSN WAS: 121 TO 136 LBS AT 100 KTS, 197 TO 203 LBS AT 150 KTS, 200 TO 305 LBS AT 200 KTS. ALSO, E/T CHAIN WAS FND OFF OFTHE SPROCKET & JAMMED BTN THE BRG PLATE & A BRACKET; 1 OF 2 BOLTS WAS MISSING FM BRG PLATE; OTR BOLT WAS FINGER TIGHT.

Probable cause

IMPROPER INSTALLATION OF THE ELEVATOR TRIM ACTUATORS, AND SUBSEQUENT JAMMING OF THE ELEVATOR TRIM IN A NOSE DOWN TRIM POSITION.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record BFO90FA002
Event ID
20001213X29541
Case number
BFO90FA002
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
  • Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
  • Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1989-10-26.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 62511370c2d250805ce001eab1fc958e907268ae9284d55dcea87c8f0210849b; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:06:13.061Z.